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February 17, 2003
ERNST ZÜNDEL HELD IN BATAVIA, NEW YORK, DETENTION
CENTER
News from the Institute for Historical Review http://www.ihr.org/news/030217ZundelNews.html
This morning Ernst Zündel was removed from a Tennessee jail
-- where he had been held since his arrest on February 5 at his home outside
Sevierville -- and taken to Atlanta, and from there to upstate New York.
Today at 6:00 p.m., Eastern time, he phoned Mark Weber at the IHR office
from an US immigration detention center in Batavia, New York, not far from
the Canadian border, to report on the situation.
US authorities have issued an order barring him from the
United States for twenty years, Ernst said. It is likely, he added, that he
will soon be deported to Canada, where he lived for 42 years as a permanent
resident. He then could be held in prison for having violated a “Human
Rights Tribunal” ruling that declared unlawful the “Zundelsite” web
site (http://www.zundelsite.org/index.html),
which his wife, Ingrid Rimland, has run from the United States.
Ernst is in good spirits, eagerly discussing measures to be
taken to deal with this new challenge. He said that he no money with him --
“not a red cent” -- because he took along no money or credit cards when
he was arrested on the 5th.
Ernst and Ingrid are relieved that he was not deported to
Germany, the land of his birth and citizenship, where he faces years of
imprisonment for violating the country’s “Holocaust denial” law.
The arrest and deportation of Ernst is an outrage,
especially considering that he is married to a naturalized US citizen, and
has never been convicted of any crime in the United States or Canada. As
anyone who knows him well can testify, he takes great care to obey the law
and abide by legal regulations.
It appears that US authorities singled him out for
deportation, using the pretext of supposedly violating a procedural
regulation -- while ignoring millions who have been living in the United
States unlawfully for years.
For more about Ernst Zundel, his arrest, deportation and
background, see the “Zundelsite” (http://www.zundelsite.org/index.html),
and the IHR web site, especially “Authorities Prepare To Deport Ernst
Zündel” (http://www.ihr.org/news/030214Zundel.html).
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AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO DEPORT ERNST ZÜNDEL
Friday, February 14, 2003
http://www.ihr.org/news/030214Zundel.html
Ernst Zündel will be deported from the United States within
the next few weeks, say US immigration authorities quoted in recent
newspaper reports. It is not yet clear if he will be sent to Germany, the
country of his birth and citizenship, or to Canada, where he lived for years
as a permanent resident.
The controversial Holocaust revisionist publisher and civil
rights activist was arrested Feb. 5 at his home in eastern Tennessee, and
since then has been held in the nearby Blount County jail. His wife, Ingrid
Rimland, was present when three agents of the US Immigration and
Naturalization Service and two local law enforcement officers took him away
in handcuffs. An INS official in New Orleans says that Zündel will remain
in jail until his deportation.
Ingrid is urging supporters to publicize her husband’s
arrest on what she says amounts to a “minor immigration violation.”
Supposedly because he missed a procedural hearing, he is technically now in
the US illegally.
Ingrid, a naturalized US citizen and a distinguished author
in her own right, maintains the “Zündelsite” (http://www.zundelsite.org/index.html),
which contains details about Zündel’s recent arrest, updated information
about his status since then, and numerous items about her husband’s life
and work. For years she has written and distributed a daily “ZGram”
message by e-mail.
She spoke about the arrest, her efforts since then on her
husband’s behalf, and her fears for the future, as a guest on the Jeff
Rense radio program, Monday evening, Feb. 10. She expressed concern that if
Ernst is deported to Germany, he could be imprisoned for years because his
dissident views on the “Holocaust” are unlawful there.
Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review
(http://www.ihr.org/index.html),
also appeared on the program at Ingrid’s request. He described Zündel as
a friend and civil rights activist who has waged costly and drawn-out legal
battles in Canada for basic liberties. Zündel was a defendant in two major
trials in Toronto, which concluded with a ruling by Canada’s Supreme Court
that the archaic law under which he had been charged was unconstitutional.
He thus won a victory for the civil liberties of all Canadians, said Weber.
In the second of those two trials, Weber testified for five days as an
expert witness on Zündel’s behalf. Ernst has addressed two IHR
Conferences, 1994 and 2000.
John Sack and Robert Countess also appeared as guests on the
Rense program, which is broadcast across the USA on more than a hundred
stations of the Talk Radio Network, and worldwide through the Internet. The
Feb. 10 program can be heard on line through the Rense web site (http://www.rense.com).
Click on: http://www.soundwaves2000.com/rense/
A Life of Struggle
Ernst Zündel, a towering figure in the worldwide Holocaust
revisionist movement, was born in 1939 in a small town in the Black Forest
region of southwestern Germany. He emigrated to Canada at the age of 19,
where he soon married and became the father of two sons. It wasn't long
before he made a name for himself as a successful graphic artist whose work
has appeared, for example, on the front cover of Maclean's, Canada's
national news magazine.
It was at about this time that he chose to dedicate himself
to the great task, as he sees it, of redeeming the sullied reputation of his
German nation and people.
Through the Samisdat publishing house he founded, he
distributed worldwide a prodigious quantity of books, booklets, leaflets,
newsletters, and audio and video cassettes. Simon Wiesenthal, the well-known
“Nazi hunter,” has called Zündel the world's number one distributor of
allegedly dangerous literature and cassettes. Over the years his powerful
enemies have done everything they can to silence him, including several
attempts on his life.
He has written countless booklets, newsletters and essays.
He is a prodigious publisher, a one-man public relations firm, and an able
public speaker and organizer. A dauntless leader in struggle against
apparently insurmountable odds and seemingly invincible adversaries, no
revisionist is more tenacious, dedicated and courageous.
Ernst Zündel, who sometimes describes himself as a "Swabian
peasant,” is an outgoing, good-humored man who is blessed with a rare
combination of unflagging optimism and practical ability. He maintains this
infectious spirit even under very trying conditions. He is an unusually
alert and sensitive individual with a keen understanding of human nature. He
knows how to persuade, cajole and encourage his supporters to give their
best for the greater good. He inspires confidence, loyalty and even
affection.
Zündel is probably best known for his central role in the
“Holocaust Trials” of 1985 and 1988. He was brought to court in Toronto
on a charge of “publishing false news,” and specifically for publishing
a reprint edition of a booklet entitled Did Six Million Really Die?. To wage
the legal battle that was forced upon him, he brought together an impressive
international team of revisionist scholars, legal specialists, researchers,
and many others. From numerous libraries and archives in North America and
Europe, this group assembled at “Zündelhaus” one of the most impressive
collections of evidence anywhere on this chapter of history.
Zündel's two lengthy trials -- the 1985 trial lasted two
months, and the 1988 trial lasted four months -- have been the closest thing
anywhere to full scale debates on the Holocaust issue. For the first time
ever, “Holocaust survivors” and Holocaust historians were closely and
critically questioned under oath about their claims and views. These
witnesses included Raul Hilberg, author of the standard text, The
Destruction of the European Jews, as well as Rudolf Vrba, whose claims about
Auschwitz have been a keystone of the extermination story.
The confusion and ignorance of Hilberg, Vrba and other
prosecution witnesses were exposed for all to see, and resulted in
astonishing headlines and reports in newspapers across the country. Vrba's
testimony, for example, was torn to shreds, and he had to admit that he had
used what he called “poetic license” in composing his incredible memoir
about Auschwitz.
Among those who testified on Zündel's behalf in the two
trials were Dr. Robert Faurisson, David Irving, Mark Weber, Dr. William
Lindsey, Udo Walendy, and Bradley Smith. As a result of the two trials, an
enormous quantity of compelling evidence refuting the Holocaust
extermination story was presented to the court and thereby was made part of
the permanent public record. The most important of this evidence was the
historic testimony of American gas chamber expert Fred Leuchter about his
on-site forensic examination of the alleged extermination gas chambers in
Poland.
Zündel was found guilty in the 1985 trial, but the verdict
was set aside by the provincial appeals court. It ruled that the judge in
that trial had, among other things, given improper instructions to the jury,
and had improperly excluded defense evidence. In May 1988, at the conclusion
of the second Zündel trial, the jury declared him guilty. A few days later,
he was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
After carefully considering his appeal of the 1988 guilty
verdict, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the law under
which he had been convicted. On August 27, 1992, the judges specifically
affirmed that Zündel's publications, including the revisionist booklet, are
protected under the country's Charter of Rights. The Court categorically
endorsed key arguments that had been made by Zündel and his attorney during
the two trials.
This was not only a personal vindication by Canada's highest
court; Ernst Zündel secured an important victory for the rights of all
Canadians.
What was achieved in this protracted legal battle against
much better financed and entrenched foes is a tribute to his organizational
ability and extraordinary personality.
Zündel’s last great legal battle in Canada was fought out
before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in Toronto on charges, instigated
by Jewish groups, of promoting “hatred or contempt” against Jews through
the “Zündelsite” Internet web site operated by Ingrid Rimland from the
United States. Among the groups opposing him in this case -- in which the
truth or validity of the supposedly “hateful” items was not a
consideration -- were the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Canadian Jewish
Congress, the Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Association, and the League for
Human Rights of B’nai B’rith (counterpart of the Anti-Defamation League
in the US). The Tribunal ultimately ruled against him, declaring the “Zündelsite”
to be unlawful.
After 42 years in Canada, including a failed effort to
acquire Canadian citizenship, he moved to the United States, where he
married Ingrid in January 2000. Since the summer of 2000, they have lived
quietly in the mountain region of eastern Tennessee.
Of this remarkable man, Robert Faurisson wrote in 1988: “Zündel
may once again go to prison for his research and beliefs or be threatened
with deportation. All this is possible. Anything may happen when there is an
intellectual crisis and a realignment of historical concepts of such a
dimension. Revisionism is the great intellectual adventure of the end of
this century. Whatever happens, Ernst Zündel is already the victor.”
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